Bungling hampers healing at PSU

August 12, 2012

Hollywood could do a remake of a 1995 movie but this time focus on the Penn State Board of Trustees.

It could be titled "Clueless."

That certainly seems to be an apt title given the way the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case has been bungled by the panel of university leaders - often under a cloak of secrecy that has only fueled suspicions and dissent.

The board has come under severe criticism - much of it deserved - throughout this awful nine-month ordeal.

It confirmed the firing of Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier at 10 p.m. on a campus full of angry students, who promptly staged a riot in protest.

Last month, just a few hours after the findings of the Freeh report were released - to the board and public at the same time - the board accepted the report even though many of its members had not even read through the 267-page document.

Why, we ask, would the board not have delayed its press conference and given itself adequate time to review the controversial and damning document?

The media has been blamed for its coverage of the entire scandal, but the media didn't call the 10 p.m. press conference to fire Paterno or the press conference to discuss important information and recommendations that the board hadn't appropriately reviewed.

Where is the public-relations advice here?

How many more times is this board going to back itself into a corner by the deadline of having called a press conference?

The board is now scheduled to hold a conference call this afternoon to vote on ratifying a consent decree with the NCAA on the severe sanctions the organization imposed on Penn State.

University President Rodney Erickson signed the consent decree before the sanctions were announced on July 23, even though some of the trustees were not informed about the impending punishment.

Erickson said he felt he had to agree to the NCAA's demands or risk having the football program closed down, possibly for four years, and there wasn't time to notify all of the trustees.

Though Erickson maintained he didn't have to get board approval to sign the consent decree, we believe the board - all of it, not a select few - deserved the courtesy of being informed.

The board apparently then agreed to the decree in a July 25 closed-door meeting. The trustees, trying to paint a happy face amid some apparent discontent, issued a statement after the meeting that "a vote was not required, and none was taken."

Two weeks later - and after some trustees and others announced plans to appeal the NCAA's ruling - comes an announcement that the board will vote on the sanctions via conference call this afternoon.

In a small sign of progress, the board will allow the public to listen to the conference call online at WPSU.org/live.

The last time the board met on the matter, it went behind closed doors so the public didn't get a sense of the discussion or how deeply divided the board was. We hope that some of that will come out today, although it wouldn't be surprising if the trustees try to keep it short and simple with a quick vote and no debate.

That would be a shame because it would further erode public confidence in the board and once again obscure the transparency that's supposed to part of this new era.

Having a real discussion about whether the NCAA sanctions should be accepted as is and whether the process the organization used was fair would at least show the broader Penn State community that the board is at least taking the matter seriously and isn't just acting as a rubber stamp. It also could help bridge some of the chasms in public opinion and allow the university and its students, alumni and supporters to move foward.

That's what's needed. Regrettably, from what we've witnessed thus far, that might be asking too much from this "Clueless" bunch.